My Inauguration Adventure

Ticket Envelope

Why me? I really didn't deserve it. Our whole family worked on the campaign. My son Robert spent nearly full time in the Philadelphia campaign office while still being a full time law student at Penn. My son David and his partner Shana made three videos in New Hampshire for the campaign. My sister, her husband, and my nephew spent long hours knocking on doors in Pennsylvania. My contribution didn't stand out: I was a member of the Obama Science Policy Team. This was arranged through a friend at the University of Chicago. It turned out that there just wasn't that much for the Policy Team to do, especially by the time I connected in October. (I had tried to make contact in April, without success ... it took the U. of C. connection to seal the deal.) I did write letters (with much editorial help from my wife, Janet) to the Asbury Park Press and the Star Ledger, leading NJ newspapers, and the letters were published. I requested colleages in PA (unlike NJ, a presumed battleground state) to write letters to their local papers. I also made a trip to the main Philadelphia Field Office, offering my services. Once there, I did an "efficiency audit", but it was hard to justify spending $100 on train fare and 6 hours on a round trip commute to go to the office on a regular basis to do what they really needed, which was data entry. With David's and Janet's help I also made a You Tube video that saw light traffic, and then the weekend before the election Janet and I joined Robert in the Philadelphia office to help out with "Voter Protection" - making sure voters had the right polling info and that poll watchers got to the right place. Janet and Rob did some door to door work and I helped out navigating through databases and making phone calls to poll watchers to make sure they knew where to show up.

Ticket Front

I hadn't worked on a presidential campaign since 1964 and it felt good to do my small part for Obama. It is hard to know if my efforts changed even one vote, but being engaged was a great personal reward. It certainly made November 4 more joyous. And it was a family effort. But somehow being on the Policy Team got me the ticket. It was in my name and I was going.

Ticket Back

So I made preparations. Janet's Uncle Bob and Aunt Virginia live in Mt. Vernon, about 10 minutes from the terminus of the Yellow line metro. They have always been gracious to us and it was easy for me to ask to stay at their house on January 19. I was cautioned that the drive down to DC from Jersey would be a horror. The route was familiar to me, since I had worked in Arlington for 4 years while spending weekends in Holmdel. But traffic was light on I-95 and I was in Mt. Vernon by midafternoon, early enough to have a delightful walk with Virginia and her dog along the Potomac. Later I was able to show her more photos of Costa Rica than I am sure that anyone would want to see. We had a fine Indian dinner that evening and for me, and I hope for them, a thoroughly enjoyable visit.

Viginia

We agreed that Bob would take me to the Huntington station of the yellow line, leaving their house at 7:15 in the morning. The gates at the Mall were supposed to open at 8:30, so this should get me there just as the gates would open, 3 hours before the ceremony starts. My sister, who had been to the Clinton inauguration warned me to get there early, and this seemed to be about right. It was forecast to be cold and earlier just sounded like unnecessary pain.

Bob

We were a little late leaving on January 20(my fault), but we were on the road by 7:25. I had dressed super-warm, stuffed my pockets with peanut buttter & jelly sandwiches and a telephoto lens, and I had a special secure place for my precious Purple ticket.I hopped on a train, three cars from the end just as the doors closed, and we were off. The crowd was joyous. By the time the train went two stops to King street it was dangerously packed. But it moved smoothly until the Pentagon when it just stopped in the tunnel.

Gallery Place

As we approach L'enfant, the engineer announced that because of crowding we would skip that station and stop at Gallery Place. This was fine with me since that is where I wanted to go anyway. But now it was getting late. Probably 8:15. The gates should open in 15 minutes! As we passed through L'enfant we saw enormous crowds stuck on the platform, unable to get out. It was starting to get scary.

Gallery

The train finally emptied at Gallery Place. We were at the lowest level. The platform was jammed. The stairs up were jammed. The next level was jammed. Worse there was a working escalator that was taking people from the middle level to the top level. The top level was jammed. If someone stumbled at the top of the escalator people would just keep piling up and there would be disaster. There were no visible police. No crowd control. I later heard someone fell into the tracks.

F Street?

Once I got above ground an "usher" said that those with tickets should go three blocks this way and then two blocks that way and then go into to the gate. When I got to the appointed spot a cop said there was a line for "Purple ticket" holders like me that was against the wall. I followed the line which led into the tunnel under the Mall. The line went back as far as the eye could see and it wasn't moving at all. Not one bit and it was now past 9:00. So I walked to the end of the tunnel which went clear under the Mall, out the other side near the train tracks and I-395. I know what 50,000 people look like since that is how many are in Yankee Statium when it is full. This crowd was MUCH, MUCH larger. And they all had Purple tickets. Now there were supposed to be only 240,000 tickets total, and from the diagram on the back of my ticket, Purple should only have been at most 1/4 of the total, say 60,000. The reality didn't square with the supposed 240,000 tickets that I read about in the NY Times. Things didn't look good.

South of Tunnel

But we were all civil and in good spirits. I found out that most everyone (unlike me) had come from a greater distance at considerable expense. They all seemed to have gotten tickets from their Congressmen. Next to me on line was a young man from North Carolina. He was on cructches, having spained his ankle 2 days before. He was at the Purple gate at 6:00, but was told he was in the wrong place and hobbled the 1/2 mile through the tunnel like the rest of us as his foot went numb. There was also the military couple from Hampton Roads who took leave for the Inauguration. Parents with kids. Old folks with canes. No place to pee for hours. No information. Slowly we inched through the tunnel. Then the line started to move too fast. A bad sign.

Tunnel

Once through the tunnel there was no more line. No info. It was about 11:00. We slowly surged ahead and then the word filtered back that the Purple gate was closed. The ticket was useless. We wuz tricked!! Did anyone in the tunnel get in. I don't know.

Walking West

I started walking west, hoping to get into the non-ticket section of the Mall. The streets were full of people who couldn't get through the check points. There were huge lines that were not moving. Considering the obvious frustrations, people were of good cheer. But I was alone in the biggest crowd I had ever seen and disappointed. On my cell phone there were messages from my mother and son expressing joy for my good fortune to witness the great event. I had pretty well given up and decided to bushwack my way to Virginia, get on the Metro in Arlington, and get home to New Jersey early. And then a miracle occured.

CNN

It was just time for Biden's swearing in. I hadn't missed much of the ceremonies. The viewing was good and my camera was ready. I took lots of photos of the people as well as videos of Obama's speech before the live and reverent audience. The Metro back to Alexandria was uneventful, except that entering the station I met a woman my own age (no youngster) who had driven up from Columbia South Carolina for the weekend, and then broke her wrist on Saturday. She was on line with a Purple ticket before sunrise and never got in; she heard the new President's speech on a car radio that a kind person turned up loud.

I had a nice lunch with Bob and Virgina and I was back at Holmdel by 6:30, before Janet got home from work.

 

We all went to the Men's room after the ceremony. This man let me take a photo of his shirt.